(CHAT News Today)

By Sheldon Spackman and Troy Gillard

Facebook Furor

Local oil and gas company denies responsibility for controversial “Greta” decal

Feb 27, 2020 | 10:33 AM

The general manager of a Red Deer-based oil and gas services company claims they have no involvement with a controversial decal that features his company’s logo.

Images of the decal circulating online show his company’s name, X-Site Energy Services, on a cartoon rendering of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg in a sexually submissive position.

Doug Sparrow tells rdnewsNOW the decal was not made or endorsed by either himself or any employee of his company. He alleges that an unknown third party has posted it to Facebook.

Sparrow says he has sent multiple requests to Facebook to have images of the decal removed, but that so far they have not responded.

Red Deer-based Velocity Graphics, who has done work for X-Site Energy Services in the past, issued a Facebook post Thursday afternoon saying they had no involvement with the Greta decal.

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Sparrow has received hundreds of calls and emails about the decal and has shut down his Facebook and Linkedin pages because of the negative feedback.

Some people are disagreeing with Sparrow’s claim he knows nothing about the decal, however.

Michelle Narang of Rocky Mountain House says she called Sparrow Wednesday night after a friend was given one of the decals while at a job site.

“I made sure that I phoned the company before I posted it to social media because I thought in my mind ‘Maybe it is a third party?’ Anybody can make a decal and stick a logo on it. So I made sure before I made any rash post. Then I phoned them myself,” she tells rdnewsNOW.

Narang says she asked Sparrow if he was aware of the stickers with his logo depicting the rape of Greta Thunberg were being circulated.

“He indicated that it was his company campaign which he was quite supportive of,” she explained. “Doug responded ‘Well, she’s not a child, she’s 17, and that’s not really what we meant anyway.’

“Yesterday, he’s very proud of it. He stood by it. Now, he’s denying it,” she claims.

A picture that appeared on the company’s Instagram account showed a piece of equipment belonging to the company that had the words “THE GRETA ECO EDITION SUPERHEATER, IT GETS SCREAMING HOT!” pasted into the photo. Both the picture and Instagram account were deleted on Thursday.

A photo posted Feb. 7, 2020 that appeared on the Instagram account for X-Site Energy Services. Both the picture and account have since been deleted.

rdnewsNOW has reached out to Sparrow for further comment and have yet to hear back.

In the meantime, Narang says she’s not concerned about the heat she’s receiving over going public with the matter.

“I’m getting threats of a defamation of character. I shared his own marketing materials and his own Facebook. They want to sue me? Have at it.”

Narang feels the decal itself is not indicative of the oil and gas industry she supports strongly.

“Alberta and the oil and gas industry, and the leaders within it, need to condemn this type of messaging. This is not our narrative. We cannot allow this to carry on.”

Alberta RCMP have been made aware of the decal and say they are looking into it.

Leela Aheer, Alberta’s Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of Women Minister, tweeted that she considers the image to be “completely deplorable, unacceptable and degrading.”

“This is not what our province stands for,” she tweeted. “Whoever is responsible should be ashamed and apologize immediately. I stand with Albertans against this horrendous image.”